IWF King of the Ring (1998)
King of the Ring (1998) was the sixth annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). It took place on June 28, 1998 at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nine matches were scheduled on the event's card. The main event was a First Blood match featuring Kane defeating Steve Austin for the IWF Championship. The other main match was a Hell in a Cell match featuring The Undertaker defeating Mankind. Featured matches on the undercard included the KOTR tournament final between Ken Shamrock and The Rock, which Shamrock won to win the tournament and a Tag team match for the IWF Tag Team Championship (which was only added to the card earlier that morning) between The New Age Outlaws defeating The New Midnight Express, to retain the championship. This event produced arguably the most famous Hell in a Cell match of all time, pitting The Undertaker against Mankind. A couple of minutes into the match, The Undertaker threw Mankind off of the top of the cell, which was a full 16 feet, onto the Spanish Announce table. The footage of that fall has since become one of the most used and viewed video in professional wrestling history. Background The main feud heading into King of the Ring was between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kane over the IWF Championship. On the June 1st episode of Raw Is War, Kane defeated The Undertaker to become the number one contender for the IWF Championship. The previous month at Over The Edge, Austin retained the IWF Championship against Dude Love despite the efforts of Vince Matteson as special referee and Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson as time keeper and ring announcer respectively. On the June 15th episode of Raw, Matteson announced that the match between Austin and Kane would be a first blood match a match in which a wrestler who makes his opponent bleed from his face or mouth would be declared the winner. Kane through an electronic voice box declares that if he loses the match he would set himself on fire. Later that night, Austin came to the ring and accepted the match at King of the Ring. Kane came out and had fake blood drenched from the ceiling on Austin. Another feud heading into King of the Ring was between Mankind and The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match. This would be the second singles Hell in a Cell match in history with the first being the one between Shawn Michaels and Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House the previous year. On the June 15th episode of Raw, Mankind and Kane teamed up against Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker in the second Hell in a Cell match. The bout ended in a no-contest with Undertaker attacking Paul Bearer (who was aligned with Mankind and Kane) inside the cell, while Austin attacked Kane at the top of the structure. This led to a third Hell in a Cell match between Mankind and Undertaker at King of the Ring. Aftermath The next night on Raw, Austin defeated Kane to regain the IWF Championship and began a feud with both Kane and the Undertaker which lasted through September. At In Your House 23: Fully Loaded in July, Austin and Undertaker defeated Kane and Mankind for the IWF Tag Team Championship, but dropped the titles back to them in a fatal-four way match on the August 10 edition of Raw. Kane and the Undertaker were gradually revealed to be in cahoots with each other over the IWF Championship. As part of the storyline Kane turned on Mankind at SummerSlam, losing the tag team titles to the New Age Outlaws, and Undertaker ordered his brother not to interfere in his title match with Austin in the main event. The feud culminated in a match at In Your House: Breakdown in September where Kane and Undertaker simultaneously pinned Austin. This led to a match between Kane and Undertaker at Judgment Day: In Your House in October where Austin, who was the special referee, attacked both men and refused to count a fall. After the match Undertaker turned on Kane and reunited with Paul Bearer, reigniting their feud. Results ; ; *The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher) and Taka Michinoku defeated Kaientai (Funaki, Mens Teioh & Dick Togo) (6:41) *Ken Shamrock defeated Jeff Jarrett (with Tennessee Lee) (5:29) *The Rock defeated Dan Severn (4:25) *Too Much (Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor) defeated Al Snow and Head with Jerry Lawler as special guest referee (8:27) *X-Pac (w/ Chyna) defeated Owen Heart (8:30) *The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) © (w/ Chyna) defeated The New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob and Bodacious Bart) (w/ Jim Cornette) to retain the IWF Tag Team Championship (09:54) *Ken Shamrock defeated The Rock (14:09) *The Undertaker defeated Mankind in a Hell in a Cell match (16:00) *Kane (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin © in a First Blood match to win the IWF Championship (14:52) King of the Ring bracket Other on-screen talent See also *List of IWE pay-per-view events *IWE Event History *King of the Ring DVD Release * King of the Ring 1998 on DVD External links